It was 1884 and nearly Christmas. In Washington, D.C., Mary
Virginia Merrick found out about a desperately needy family with five small
children. The father was ill and out of work. The mother was about to give
birth to a new baby.

To help, 18-year-old Merrick sewed baby clothes and filled a
layette for the new arrival. The parents were so grateful they named their new
baby girl Mary, after their benefactress.

With this simple act, which Merrick said she did
specifically to honor the Christ Child, the Christ Child Society was born.
Today, members of the National Christ Child Society make and distribute
thousands of layettes each year.

“New members in all chapters usually start with hands-on
projects in the signature layettes program,” says Linda Toth, the
organization’s current president. “Some chapters actually sew all the articles
in the layettes. This is their tie to Mary Virginia Merrick because they are
doing exactly what she did 120 years ago. It’s a very powerful feeling.”

Alicia Milla knows it.

“When I’m knitting a little blanket, I’m thinking about Mary
Virginia Merrick,” says the society’s new national executive director. “It’s
very moving doing something with your hands that will benefit a little baby and
mother. It’s a beautiful step in welcoming someone into this world.”

Consisting of blankets, clothing, diapers and baby care
products — some chapters add medals and books — the layettes are “step one” in
helping one child at a time, says Toth. The layettes also offer childcare
information, contacts to local Christ Child Society chapters and information on
other services.

“The layette is a door opener for the chapters,” says Toth
from national headquarters in Bethesda, Md.

It becomes a leverage tool to work with social-service
agencies to serve the needs of the children and parents in the community. Often
the chapters work with Catholic Charities.

In fact, the National Christ Child Society (online at
NationalChristChildSoc.org) is a charter member of Catholic Charities.

Help doesn’t stop with babies. Many chapters have tutoring
and mentoring programs for children and teens. They supply school uniforms or
new clothes for children who have never had anything new.

The Cleveland chapter found a creative way to reach out to
children who wind up in shelters because of family problems. Many arrive with
next to nothing, explains their chaplain and spiritual moderator of 27 years,
Father Ralph Waitrowski, pastor of St. Barnabas Parish in Northfield, Ohio.

“The chapter has ‘My Stuff’ bags for them, basically a
duffle bag with changes of underwear, sweatshirts, sweatpants, toothbrush and
toothpaste, books to write in,” he says. “It’s a modern adaptation of what Mary
Virginia Merrick started.”

The Christ Child Society believes that challenging poverty
“one child at a time” in these ways is a practical, positive — and effective —
way to help children move out of the poverty cycle.

“This isn’t a new idea,” explains Roseann Anderson, a member
of the Pasadena, Calif., chapter and past national president. “This was the
idea of Mary Virginia Merrick when she founded the Christ Child Society.”

The founder also started the first Fresh Air Camp for
Washington, D.C., children so they could see God’s creation beyond the stifling
confines of the 19th-century city. President Benjamin Harrison’s wife sent
Merrick a check from the White House by special messenger.

For her part Merrick, whose cause for canonization opened in
2003, was left paralyzed by a childhood accident. Although confined to a
reclining position, often in a wheelchair, she remained national president
until 1948. She led the D.C. chapter until she died in 1955 at age 88.

The child of a prominent Mid-Atlantic family, she ran the
household after her parents died, caring for her six younger siblings when she
was only 19.

“I was always in bed or on the sofa, but I learned to sew
and write in this recumbent position,” Merrick wrote in her autobiography. “I
strove to serve as best I could. … I resolved to do something every day for the
Christ Child.”

That she did, and then some, even before the organization
became official in 1887.

Today there are 43 chapters coast to coast with more 7,000
members, primarily women. According to Toth, chapters such as Cleveland, Omaha,
and Detroit were started by people who personally knew the founder.

In 2003, the National Christ Child Society launched a new
initiative called “Challenging Poverty One Child at a Time” to find even more
ways to meet the needs of the community.

“We came to the conclusion the way to impact the children is
to have an impact on the parents,” explains Mary Lindquist, a member of the
Toledo, Ohio, chapter and also a program coordinator for Catholic Charities in
that diocese. Parent support-and-education classes help parents at risk,
especially those living in homeless shelters.

Lindquist says challenging poverty reaches to the layettes.
“We include children’s books,” she says, “so mothers can start reading to their
children from the start.”

Some members occasionally get a glimpse of the long-term
results from helping mothers and children. Toth will never forget one meeting
at the once-a-year collection for baby-care products. Members stand outside
grocery stores and ask shoppers to purchase various items and place them into
collection baskets.

“Once a woman came out of the store and put in two grocery
bags filled with shampoo, soap, baby ointments and more,” says Toth. “She had
spent a lot of money. I thanked her and she said, ‘Five years ago I got a layette
from you people. I didn’t know how I was going to cover my baby when I came out
of the hospital. Today I can afford to do this. This is my gift back to you.’”